United States patent 803685

by Charles M. Frost

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES M. FROST, OF JACKSON, MICHIGAN.

CORSET AND OTHER ARTICLES OF COUNTERPART CONSTRUCTION.

No. 803,685. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Nov. 7, 1905.
Application filed April 30, 1904, Serial No. 205,841.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES M. FROST, a citizen of the United States, residing at Jackson, in the county of Jackson and State of Michigan, have invented new and useful Improvements in Corsets and other Articles of Counterpart Construction, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates, to wearing-apparel of counterpart construction, and has for its object to provide means for maintaining the shape of such articles or overcoming their inherent tendency as ordinarily constructed to draw out of shape by reason of the fact that the construction of the cloth used in one half of the garment is the same, instead of being the counterpart or opposite of that used in the other half, both as to the twist of its component yarns and the pattern or design exhibited on the face of the cloth.

The invention will first be hereinafter more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, and then pointed out in the claims at the end of the description.

One of the chief obstacles in the way of the manufacturer of corsets and other articles of wearing-apparel of counterpart construction and one of the most annoying features presented to the consumer has been the tendency of the corset to "set crooked"--that is, when the corset is hooked up and laid on a table with the back and front clasps parallel one shoulder stands higher than the other, and when such a corset is laced on the person or figure it will be found that the clasp assumes a more or less diagonal position, one bust standing higher than the other, thus rendering the corset thoroughly uncomfortable to the wearer and unsightly. The major portion of factory-made corsets develop this tendency in a greater or less degree, dependent upon the "style" or "cut" of the corset, the quality of material, and on the measures adopted to prevent or counteract this tendency during the process of manufacture.   A large per cent. of corsets sold and which appear to be "straight" before being worn soon develop the same "crooked" tendency, and after a short period of use the wearer finds that the clasp is beginning to "twist." On account of this ever-present evil corsetmakers have resorted to various methods of construction in order to have the right and left halves of the article put together under the same or what may be termed "balanced" conditions; but they have failed to get at the root of the evil and the trouble has not been overcome, so that even with all known precautions nearly every corset-factory still has its "straightening-table," where expert operators examine each corset and see that it is made to set straight before passing it on to the later operations. An added trouble arises from the fact that in bias-seamed corsets which run crooked in the making one half is almost always larger than the other half, which calls for the efforts of an expert operator to bring them to proper size without destroying the shape of the article.

Nearly all domestic goods are woven of lefttwist yarns, while many of the imported materials are of right-twist yarns, and upon investigation I have ascertained that corsets made from such domestic goods are crooked in exactly the opposite way to those made from snch imported materials, so that by using a left-twist or a right-twist material for both sides of the article when it is completed the right half is not the counterpart of the left, the yarns composing the cloth are twisted the same way in each half, and the design or pattern brought out on the face of the cloth in weaving is the same in both halves of the corset instead of being counterparts or right and left, respectively, and any tendency in one half to draw out of shape by reason of the construction of the cloth is accentuated by a similar tendency in the other half.   In my improvement these objectionable features are eliminated, and to accomplish this I use what may be termed "right and left hand cloths" for the right and left halves of the corset, respectively, so that in the completed article whatever unnatural stretching tendency develops in one half will be counterbalanced or counteracted by an opposing tendency in the other half.

Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 represents a crooked corset, the letter a denoting the right half and the letter b the left half. Figs. 2 and 3 represent design-cards of right and left hand twills, respectively.   Figs. 4 and 5 represent a right-twist yarn and a leftwist yarn, respectively.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

In constructing the corset or other article

of counterpart construction I cut the right half preferably from "left-twist" goods and the left half from "right-twist" goods, and thus produce a corset in which one half is truly the opposite of the other, whereby a perfectly-balanced effect is secured and the

corset is permanently straight.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters
Patent, is--

1. A corset or other article of counterpart construction having the right half thereof made of cloth whose component yarns or threads are spun or twisted in the reverse direction to that of the yarns or threads composing the cloth of the left half, substantially as described.

2. A corset or other article of counterpart construction having the right half thereof made of cloth whose component yarns or threads are spun or twisted in the reverse direction to that of the yarns or threads composing the cloth of the left half, and whose loom pattern or design is the reverse or opposite of the loom pattern or design of the cloth used in the left half, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.
          CHARLES M. FROST
  Witnesses:
    DRURY FAIRBANKS GEORGE,
    JOSUAH B. FROST.